The present invention relates to an assaying apparatus which can be used in the field of biochemistry and immunochemistry, and a vessel holder unit in use with the assaying apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a biochemistry and immunoassay apparatus, simple in construction and small in size, for handling samples, e.g., blood, serum, and urine, whose temperatures for storing them and for assaying them are different from each other, and also a small and simple vessel holder unit in use with the biochemistry and immunoassay apparatus.
In an immunochemical analysis apparatus, organism samples, e.g., serum, which are supplied in a state that those are contained in sample vessels, are transported to dispensing positions where the samples are dispensed by a dispensing device. The samples are absorbed from and discharged into reaction vessels into which a reagent necessary for reaction, e.g., a labeled antibody, which is transported in another route, has been put or is put anew. The resultant is placed under a temperature condition suitable for antigen-antibody reaction for a fixed period of time and then fluorescence emitted therefrom is measured.
In the immunoassay apparatus, it is a common practice that the sample vessels are transported to the dispensing positions (absorbing positions) where the sample dispensing is carried out by the dispensing device, while being held by hold/transporting member, such as a turn table, a snake chain, and a rack. On the other hand, the reaction vessels are usually transported to the dispensing positions (absorbing positions) where the sample dispensing is carried out by the dispensing device, while being held by hold/transporting member adjusted to a fixed temperature, such as a turn table, a snake chain, and a rack, or after the samples are dispensed, the reaction vessels are transported to the temperature adjusted hold/transported member. In a case where a reagent necessary for reaction is dispensed into the reaction vessels in the process of the immunoassay, a reagent vessel is held by the rack, for example, and the reagent is dispensed into the reaction vessel held by the turn table, for example, by use of the dispensing device.
Thus, in the conventional immunoassay apparatus, the sample vessels, the reaction vessels, and the reagent vessels are transported while being held by separate hold/transporting member, such as turn table, snake chain, rack and the like. For this reason, a plural number of hold/transporting member are included in one immunoassay apparatus. The construction causes the apparatus size to increase. Further, the dispensing device must be moved among those hold/transporting devices. This results in complexity of the moving mechanism.
In the conventional immunoassay apparatus that is increased in size and complicated in construction and operation, it is difficult to have an adjustment operation for adjusting each the devices which have been incorporated into the apparatus, and also to have an maintenance operation for the apparatus.
In addition to this, in some of the conventional immunoanalysis apparatus, the samples are not required to control in their temperature, the reaction vessels are usually subjected to a temperature adjustment, and only some type of reagents requiring their temperature adjustment are subjected to a temperature adjustment. Therefore, two temperature adjusting mechanism are required: one for the reaction-vessel holder and the other for the reagent-vessel holder. Further, in the case where both of the reagent vessel for the reagent requiring its temperature adjustment and the reagent vessel for the reagent not requiring its temperature adjustment are simultaneously utilized, the reagent-vessel holders must be provided for these reagent vessels, respectively.